Houston -
Water has been detected water on the largest metallic asteroid in the solar system by a team of NASA scientists. The asteroid is called Psyche and it could become the target of a space mission.

Houston -
It may seem like the plot of a sci-fi disaster movie, but NASA scientists have given serious consideration of how the Earth should defend itself against an asteroid should such a space rock be on a collision course with our planet.

Houston -
The dwarf planet Pluto continues to tantalize. This follows news that stream of photons have been detected streaming from the planet and into space. The mystery is the planet has no obvious way of making these high-energy photons.

Houston -
The number of moons around Uranus is a matter of scientific debate within the astronomy community. Despite the Voyager probe visiting the planet three decades ago, data collected is still being discussed.

Despite the downgrading of Pluto from a planet (and the ninth in the solar system) to a dwarf planet, much about the far-flung celestial object remains a mystery. A new puzzle involves the presence of clouds.

Astronomers have long wondered why there are no planets closer to the Sun than Mercury. To have planets closer is common with many stars. The answer might be due to Jupiter having once been located closer to our star, suggests a new theory.

Munich -
Gathering all available telescope data on the minor planet Pluto and its satellites from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), two astronomers have carried out the most in depth analysis yet of one of the solar systems great mysteries.

Garching Bei M -
Mars once hosted an ocean containing more water than the Arctic ocean. Not only that but this primitive Martian Sea covered a greater proportion of Mars’ surface than the Atlantic Ocean does on Earth.

A potential new source of alien life in our own solar system will be explored by a NASA probe in March 2015. Scientists think that the so-called "dwarf planet," Ceres, could have the right conditions for life to exist and may even be habitable for humans.

Ithaca -
Saturn’s moon Mimas is already an oddity, being the most cratered object in the Solar System and likened to the Death Star of Star Wars fame. But new research this week points to Mimas being even weirder than previously thought.

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Solar system Image

This global view of Jupiter's moon, Io, was obtained during the tenth orbit of Jupiter by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Io, which is slightly larger than Earth's Moon, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Kupalo Crater is one of the youngest craters on Ceres. The crater has bright material exposed on its rim and walls, which could be salts. Its flat floor likely formed from impact melt and debris.
Kupalo, which measures 16 miles (26 kilometers) across and is located at southern mid-latitudes, is named for the Slavic god of vegetation and harvest.

NASA/JPL

An artist’s impression showing how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. The young planet would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 metres deep. More likely, however, the liquid would have pooled forming an ocean spanning almost half of Mars' northern hemisphere, in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometers.

ESO/M. Kornmesser

Artist's impression of Curiosity rover on the Martian surface

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Based on new evidence from Jupiter's moon Europa, astronomers hypothesize that chloride salts bubble up from the icy moon's global liquid ocean and reach the frozen surface where they are bombarded with sulfur from volcanoes on Jupiter's innermost large moon

NASA / JPL / Artist's concept

An artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about four billion years ago. The young planet Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 metres deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometers.

ESO/M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)

The Solar System, including the objects in question during the IAU's recent planet definition debate : Ceres, Pluto-Charon, and Eris.

The International Astronomical Union/Martin Kornmesser

V838 Mon, a star with an expanding gas shell, purported as photographic evidence of Nibiru

NASA

Pluto as seen by New Horizons at a distance of 800,000 kilometers. This image taken July clearly shows two darker areas thought to cmprise tholins deposited on Pluto's surface

John Hopkins University

Dunes in an ancient Martian valley, Mawrth Vallis, remarkably similar in shape to the Star Trek logo, appear to march across the surface of Mars.

An image obtained by Cassini showing the geyser basin at Enceladus south pole with water vapor jets clearly visible.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Unusual orbit of Planet X or Planet Nine

Caltech

Panoramic View From 'Rocknest' Position of Curiosity Mars Rover:
A mosaic of images taken by the Mast Camera on NASA Mars rover Curiosity while the rover was working at a site called "Rocknest" in October & November 2012.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

A projection of the radar data of Venus collected in 2012. Striking surface features -- like mountains and ridges -- are easily seen. The black diagonal band at the center represents areas too close to the Doppler “equator” to obtain well-resolved image data.

B. Campbell, Smithsonian, et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF, Arecibo

NASA

Ceres in solar system

UCIrvine

Artist's impression of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample spacecraft preparing to take a sample from asteroid Bennu for later return to and analysis on Earth.

NASA/Goddard

A false-color image from NASA's Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn's north pole. The eye of a hurricane-like storm appears dark red while the fast-moving hexagonal jet stream framing it is a yellowish green.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

An artist's concept of the Oort cloud. Note that the distance scale is logarithmic. Compared to the size of planetary orbits, the Oort cloud is very far away. If the Sun passed within 2 light years of another sun-like star, the stars' Oort clouds would overlap and their comets would intermingle.